De Lisle Partners LLP Sells 2,641 Shares of Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO)

De Lisle Partners LLP cut its holdings in shares of Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) by 10.7% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 21,968 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 2,641 shares during the quarter. De Lisle Partners LLP’s holdings in Assured Guaranty were worth $1,747,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in AGO. Gladius Capital Management LP bought a new position in shares of Assured Guaranty during the 3rd quarter valued at $31,000. New Covenant Trust Company N.A. bought a new position in shares of Assured Guaranty during the first quarter valued at about $35,000. Assetmark Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Assured Guaranty by 66.6% in the third quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 493 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $39,000 after buying an additional 197 shares during the period. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Assured Guaranty in the 2nd quarter valued at about $46,000. Finally, Farther Finance Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Assured Guaranty by 183.8% during the 3rd quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 596 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $47,000 after acquiring an additional 386 shares during the period. 92.22% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Assured Guaranty

In related news, Director Yukiko Omura sold 3,599 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $79.73, for a total value of $286,948.27. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 19,285 shares in the company, valued at $1,537,593.05. This trade represents a 15.73 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Dominic Frederico sold 31,000 shares of Assured Guaranty stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $80.01, for a total transaction of $2,480,310.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,380,119 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $110,423,321.19. This trade represents a 2.20 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 5.10% of the company’s stock.

Assured Guaranty Trading Up 0.2 %

NYSE AGO opened at $93.47 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $4.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.26 and a beta of 1.10. Assured Guaranty Ltd. has a fifty-two week low of $67.25 and a fifty-two week high of $96.60. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $85.37 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $80.53. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a current ratio of 0.91.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 11th. The financial services provider reported $2.42 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.42 by $1.00. Assured Guaranty had a net margin of 70.37% and a return on equity of 11.58%. The business had revenue of $269.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $202.57 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $3.42 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 33.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts forecast that Assured Guaranty Ltd. will post 7.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Assured Guaranty Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 6th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 22nd will be issued a dividend of $0.31 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 22nd. This represents a $1.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.33%. Assured Guaranty’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 9.63%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

AGO has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price target on Assured Guaranty from $92.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, November 18th. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of Assured Guaranty from $87.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, November 18th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Assured Guaranty from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 13th.

Assured Guaranty Company Profile

Assured Guaranty Ltd., together with its subsidiaries, provides credit protection products to public finance, infrastructure, and structured finance markets in the United States and internationally. It operates through two segments: Insurance and Asset Management. The company offers financial guaranty insurance that protects holders of debt instruments and other monetary obligations from defaults in scheduled payments.